Celestial Reviews 173 - April 16, 1997
Note: I'm finally catching up on some stories that I received at a time
when I was experiencing technical difficulties. If I review your story,
you may want to repost it, so that readers can find it more easily. If
you have trouble finding a story, try www.dejanews.com. Also, if you
sent me a story and I failed to review it, send me a reminder. I
probably still have the story, but I need you to nudge me to dig it out.
Second Note: Remember: even though someone else may be posting my
stories for me, my e-mail address is still Celeste801@aol.com.
- Celeste
"Chocolate Kisses" by Ashley (chocolate incest) 9, 7, 7
"My Birthday Present" by Insomnia (strip search & threesome)
9, 9, 9
"The O'Stikkit Inn" by Mike Hunt (sex in the swimming pool)
10, 10, 10
"The One-Room Schoolhouse in the Middle of the Prairie" by
[Name Removed 2006-02-16] (double whammy) 10, 9, 10
"Box Office" by CobaltJade (sex slavery) 10, 10, 10
"A Summer Romance" by Jim Fix (emerging adolescence)
10, 10, 10
"Twins" by IRA (pregnancy) 9, 8, 8
"Susan" by DaVinci (one nighter) 7, 8, 8
"Down by the Tracks" by Dulcinea (outdoor sex) 10, 10, 10
"Mowing the Lawn" by OddManOut Anywhere (applied sex
education) 10, 9, 9
"For Her" by Unknown Author (very hot mf sex) 10, 10, 10
"Moments of Gold" by Rayv and Jvstin (meeting the cyberlover)
9, 9, 9
"The Last Man on Earth" by Night Writer (science fiction)
10, 9, 9
* "Slippery When Wet" by SueNH (boiling hot jacuzzi sex)
10, 10, 10
* "At the Pool" by Mark Aster (swimming pool sex)
10, 10, 10
* "Brenda's Conquest" by Tom Bombadil (emerging
adolescence & romance) 10, 10, 10
* = Repost of a previous review (because the story has
recently been reposted)
"Chocolate Kisses" by Ashley (ashley@cythera.com). The story is
supposed to be a narrative by a 16-year-old, describing her sexual
experiences with her father. The old guy has bought her a candy cock,
so that she can practice giving head without using her teeth. Ashley
tells how she gets turned on while playing with her phallus and her
father, and she also describes some of the things she imagines while she
does her thing. It's an interesting and somewhat sexy story, but it
just doesn't quite ring true.
Ratings for "Chocolate Kisses"
Athena (technical quality): 9
Venus (plot & character): 7
Celeste (appeal to reviewer): 7
"My Birthday Present" by Insomnia (insomnia@bigfoot.com). For his
birthday present the girlfriend allows the narrator to strip search
herself and her friend. The activities get pretty hot and result in
threeway action that includes anal sex. Not a bad story!
Ratings for "My Birthday Present"
Athena (technical quality): 9
Venus (plot & character): 9
Celeste (appeal to reviewer): 9
"The O'Stikkit Inn" by Mike Hunt (M1KE HUNT@aol.com). I'll bet you
wouldn't notice this on your own; so I'll tell you. If you read the
title " O'Stikkit Inn" by Mike Hunt out loud, it could be mistaken for
an imperative sentence giving directions during foreplay. Imagine that.
This is a VERY hot story. As an example of sex in the swimming pool, it
rivals "Slippery When Wet" by SueNH. As I said in my review of Sue's
story, I can't do it justice by trying to summarize it - It's about a
man and a woman who meet a guy in the bar and then get into the hotel's
swimming pool after closing time. Read the story for the rest. As I
said, it's really hot stuff.
Ratings for "The O'Stikkit Inn"
Athena (technical quality): 10
Venus (plot & character): 10
Celeste (appeal to reviewer): 10
"The One-Room Schoolhouse in the Middle of the Prairie" by Thomas-Paz
Hartman (tph7@columbia.edu). Jim Harbo is a student having a sex
fantasy about his teacher, Keesha Jackson. Or maybe Keesha Jackson is a
student having a sex fantasy about her teacher, Jim Harbo. Or maybe Jim
Harbo is a teacher having a sex fantasy about his student, Keesha
Jackson. Whatever.... Somebody either in real life or in fantasy life
is a teacher in a one-room schoolhouse with a sexually enticing student
who needs to be punished and who enjoys the spanking or does not enjoy
the spanking - or at least someone is putting something over on someone
else and at least one person is getting sexually aroused. Probably.
This story is to be continued. Maybe.
Ratings for "The One-Room Schoolhouse"
Athena (technical quality): 10
Venus (plot & character): 9
Celeste (appeal to reviewer): 10
"Box Office" by CobaltJade (cobaltjade@aol.com). I try to set aside my
personal preferences when I review these stories. In the present case,
I would NOT like to experience the activities that this woman
experiences, but I have to admit that this is a well-written creative
story. In a weird way I enjoyed the story very much.
The story is about sex slavery. The woman enjoys bdsm games, and she
volunteers to be sold into slavery. She gets more than she bargained
for. The title is a perfect description of her final role in the story.
I promise you that you'll be unable to guess the meaning of this title
until you get to the very end of the story.
Ratings for "Box Office"
Athena (technical quality): 10
Venus (plot & character): 10
Celeste (appeal to reviewer): 10
"A Summer Romance" by Jim Fix (jimfix@earthlink.net). This was actually
posted as two separate stories: "A Summer Romance Part 1" and "Summer
Romance Revisited." I shall review these as a single story, and I
advise you to read both parts together.
Paul (a bright student going into his sophomore year in high school) and
his Mom have been living together since her messy divorce from his Dad
two years ago. Paul and his mother have always showed mutual affection,
but during a stay at some relatives' mountain cabin they realize that
their attraction has a physical and sexual component. With his mature
consent, Mom decides to treat Paul as a lover, and their life together
becomes happier. They each contribute to the other's intellectual and
personal growth, as well as to each other's sexual happiness.
The second half of the story moves more rapidly than the first half.
Life changes; Paul goes to college; Mom gets a new job; their love
affair comes to an end; Mom remarries; and Paul falls in love. This is
a very good story.
I think society's general taboo against incest is reasonable; that is,
it makes sense to have an initial reaction that incestuous relations
should be avoided. In general, incestuous relationships are likely to
be coercive and exploitive, even though the participants may be unaware
that something bad is happening. Nevertheless, it also makes sense to
consider the possibility that such relationships could be productive and
growth-producing. This author has gone to great lengths to build a good
story around a set of circumstances in which a mother/son sexual
relationship is not only harmless but also beautiful.
You can skip the rest of this review if moral reasoning doesn't interest
you, but I am going to discuss morality for a few paragraphs. Religions
generally condemn incest, and I (Celeste) am an active participant in
the Catholic religion, whose leaders condemn incest. How do I reconcile
these views? Why don't I either condemn incest or stop being a Catholic
Christian?
The answer lies in proportionalist moral reasoning, which says that when
there is a conflict between moral outcomes or goals, decisions must be
based on proportionate consequences. An action that might objectively
be undesirable (immoral) is permitted only if it leads to benefits
(called values) that outweigh its ill effects (called disvalues). The
Catholic Church and other religions have used this kind of reasoning for
centuries (for example, with regard to the "just war theory") but the
Church leaders are not exactly progressive with regard to sexual
morality.
The main alternative to proportionalist reasoning in the Christian
religions is natural law reasoning. Here's the difference. Assume that
there is a soldier who has his army's secret plans in a pouch attached
to his belt. When he is in danger of being caught, is it morally
permissible for the soldier to ignite an explosive that will destroy the
plans but also kill himself? Moral reasoning based on the natural law
says yes - because the soldier would be destroying the plans directly
and himself only indirectly. In other words, this is not really
suicide. Proportionalist reasoning would also say yes - but because the
value of saving the entire army outweighs the disvalue of the soldier
killing himself. In other words, this is suicide, but it's justified.
Changing the situation slightly, what if the soldier had memorized the
plans instead of having them in a pouch? Can the soldier kill himself
if he suspects that his captors will get the secrets from him? Natural
law reasoning would say no - because he would be killing himself
directly and destroying the secrets only indirectly. This would be
suicide, and nothing can justify suicide. Proportionalist reasoning
would still say yes - again because the value of saving the entire army
outweighs the disvalue of the soldier killing himself. Again, this is
suicide, but it's justified. My opinion is that the natural law
conclusion is just plain goofy.
This proportionalist reasoning is not all that complicated, and it makes
perfect sense. Common sense tells me that it would be unfortunate for
the soldier to be put in either situation, but I don't think he would be
"sinning" in either case if he took his life to save his army. On the
other hand, the soldier should consider other factors - such as how well
he can withstand torture, the likelihood that the enemy will get the
information from someone else, the actual value of the information, etc.
All this information would enter into the soldier's moral reasoning to
determine whether there is a proportional reason for taking his own life
in either case.
Applied to an issue like incest, proportionalism means that we should
weigh the possible values to be gained from incest (such as the
possibility of a mutually fulfilling relationship that is a natural
extension of an existing spontaneous relationship and which would
release two people's tensions while getting them ready for other
relationships) against the disvalues associated with that action (such
as restricting the child from more age-appropriate relationships, giving
birth to children that are likely to have genetic defects, and societal
retribution). In most cases in real life, the disvalues would far
outweigh the values; but in this story the values outweigh the losses.
This reasoning is different from the traditional, more legalistic
approaches, which focuses on whether the action is natural or unnatural
- prohibited by a rule or not prohibited; but this type of reasoning is
neither excessively complex nor illogical.
There is no reason to believe that Jesus would reject proportionalist
reasoning. There IS reason to believe that in most cases in real life
the disvalues will outweigh the values, and so society's general ban on
incestuous activities makes sense - as long the taboo itself does not
introduce more problems than it solves. In terms of moral reasoning,
what this story has done has been to create a situation in which the
values demonstrably outweigh the disvalues.
My personal reasoning is also different from that of hedonism, which
essentially says if it feels good and hurts nobody, go ahead and do it.
Both hedonism and traditional religions offer valid insights into
incestuous behavior; proportionalism offers another angle.
So there! I hope this discussion makes as much sense to you as it does
to me. I do NOT believe that it is necessary that every story describe
purely moral behavior, but I do think it is good occasionally to discuss
a story in its moral context.
Ratings for "A Summer Romance"
Athena (technical quality): 10
Venus (plot & character): 10
Celeste (appeal to reviewer): 10
"Twins" by IRA (Fun@Americanstyle.com). This story imitates a clinical
case study written by a marriage counselor. The woman had insipid sex
with her husband, then hot sex with the (African American) delivery man.
When the woman gives birth to twins, her husband becomes suspicious
since one baby is white and the other black. The doctor tells them that
perhaps this is because they each had an ancestor who might have been
black. The man accepts this reasoning, and thereafter he works harder
at his marriage. They live happily ever after.
This story suggests that the skin color of the black baby is essentially
a matter of a double recessive gene, like eye color. It just doesn't
work that way. Other than that significant mistake, this is a nice
story.
Ratings for "Twins"
Athena (technical quality): 9
Venus (plot & character): 8
Celeste (appeal to reviewer): 8
"Susan" by DaVinci (rmbte1@ix.netcom.com). Rick meets Susan, discusses
literature and art with her, then takes her home to her house. Susan
really needs her confidence boosted, and Rick helps out in several ways,
mostly by fucking her brains out. Some of the grammatical structure is
awkward, but this is a pretty good story.
Ratings for "Susan"
Athena (technical quality): 7
Venus (plot & character): 8
Celeste (appeal to reviewer): 8
"Baywatch Story 1: Caroline Holden" by SJ Bedden (sjb@easynett.co.uk).
"Baywatch" is an exciting television show that suffers from unfair
criticism from what a great American leader referred to as "an effete
corps of intellectual snobs." Each week (or every day on cable) the
brave men and women of Baywatch save lives and bring joy and happiness
to the small corner of the world known as Venice Beach. Jay Leno
recently noted that scientists have discovered salt water on one of the
moons of Jupiter. Said Leno, "If salt water is a prerequisite for
intelligent life, then how do you explain Baywatch?" Actually, Leno was
suffering from a logical fallacy known as the undistributed middle or
some such thing; but the point here is that one should not hastily
conclude that these sexy babes are all airheads or that David Hasselhof
can't sing.
This story approaches the Bay heroes and heroines in the same spirit:
"They all had perfect bodies, and from their tight swimsuits I could
tell that they were pretty well endowed elsewhere too." Just ponder
that sentence! By contemplating the swimsuit of, say, Pamela Anderson,
it is possible to determine that Pamela is pretty well endowed
"elsewhere" too. Where else could that "elsewhere" be, except in the
mind or the soul? Anyway, once I knew the narrator of this story would
"were" a similar swimsuit, I knew I was in for more than mere sexual
titillation. Nevertheless, I went on with the story.
Some of the details in this story are as surprising as they are
stimulating. For example, within only a few hours CJ is able to find
out the phone number of the narrator, whose bushy hairs jut out
prominently beyond the red fabric of the sides of her swimming suit.
The story contains many revealing details, such as the fact that the
typical lifeguard has at least a 10-inch cock but is surprised to
discover this (unless that was a bad pronoun reference). Also, female
lifeguards sometimes give head to male lifeguards while they drive their
vehicles across crowded beaches, but no one gets hurt, usually - at
least not unless they hit a bump and her teeth snap shut or something
like that.
Instead of saving lives, in today's episode Caroline lies on the beach
and sleeps until Ryan comes down from the tower and rubs suntan lotion
on her while she grinds her ass into his erection. Actually, I guess
they WERE saving lives - at least she wasn't giving head in a moving
vehicle on a crowded beach anymore! When Ryan takes a break, the three
studs on the beach come up to Caroline and ask if they can please have
sex with her. She replies, ""You guys are asking to fuck me, just like
that. Do I look like some kind of slut or what?" Then she has sex with
them. Afterwards, the boys are knackered and lie on the floor panting.
That's a British expression, I think: in America we refer to the sandy
area where lifeguards have sex as a "beach."
In spite of its clever use of technical terms like "big cock," "juicy
spunk," and even "thick white cum," the story lacks realism and what
technical people refer to as a "plot." However, this story certainly
does have a lot of pointless sex in a quasi-literate context, and so
this might appeal to some Baywatch enthusiasts or to people who are
interested in getting vicarious sex without having to think too much.
There's a second episode, entitled " Baywatch story 2: Gena's Story,"
but I think I'll skip that one.
This review sounds like it was written by an envious English teacher.
Ratings for "Baywatch Story"
Athena (technical quality): 6
Venus (plot & character): 5
Celeste (appeal to reviewer): 5
"Down by the Tracks" by Dulcinea (ImDulcinea@aol.com). The picnic has
been romantic, and who said sex needed to intrude on every romantic
venture? Well, the guidelines of this newsgroup, for one! Since she
loves trains, they have been having a picnic near the train tracks.
About the time the train is scheduled to pass, the husband begins to
make love to his wife and manages to climax just as the train is passing
ten feet away on the other side of the bushes. The earth DID move! It
turns out she likes boats too.
Ratings for "Down by the Tracks"
Athena (technical quality): 10
Venus (plot & character): 10
Celeste (appeal to reviewer): 10
"Mowing the Lawn" by OddManOut Anywhere (oddman0ut@hotmail.com). The
guy hates to mow the lawn. When his own lawnmower breaks down, he
borrows his neighbors'. When he returns it, he discovers that the
neighbors' sexy 17-year-old daughter is down in the dumps because no
boys find her attractive. She's a track star and is in great shape, but
she's shy and sexually inexperienced. Drawing on his own expertise from
20 years earlier, he gives her some really good advice, explaining that
the boys actually find her extremely attractive but are reluctant to
risk talking to her for fear of rejection. She appreciates the advice
and then asks him to help her learn to kiss and make out. He complies -
after all, they did loan him the lawnmower. Katie learns the basic
skills of sexual foreplay, and Brad doesn't hate to mow the lawn
anymore.
Ratings for "Mowing the Lawn"
Athena (technical quality): 10
Venus (plot & character): 9
Celeste (appeal to reviewer): 9
"For Her" by Unknown Author (THC Archives). This was reposted as
"Looker 1" by the THC Archives. It's not a full story - just a brief
interlude about two people in love, fucking each other's brains out.
It's extremely hot and well written - kind of like Dulcinea in heat. If
anyone knows anything about the identity of this author, I would
certainly like to hear from you. There's also a "Looker 2 (Night
Breezes )" and "Looker 3 (Role Reversal)," which I plan to review soon.
Ratings for "For Her"
Athena (technical quality): 10
Venus (plot & character): 10
Celeste (appeal to reviewer): 10
"Moments of Gold" by Rayv and Jvstin (jvstin@admin.con2.com). Elizabeth
and Jason have won a contest that took two people who have corresponded
by e-mail but not in real life and sent them BOTH on a trip together in
London. They have already hit it off nicely in cyberspace, and they
find that they are even more compatible in person, as they act out their
sexual fantasies in London. This is a very good story - probably the
sort of thing that many readers of this newsgroup incorporate into their
own fantasy lives.
Ratings for "Moments of Gold"
Athena (technical quality): 9
Venus (plot & character): 9
Celeste (appeal to reviewer): 9
"The Last Man on Earth" by Night Writer (A+ Story). Not only has there
been a nuclear cataclysm, but there has also been a Plague, which has
destroyed all the men on the earth - all but one, that is. Now that man
has returned to Estrogen City, where he has been captured by Arachne and
her leader Mrs. Ippy. The world is ruled by lesbians. Will the
heterosexual forces arise and come to John's assistance and somehow
restore sex between men and women to its rightful and lustful place in
the World Order? Will John Doe make a contribution to repopulating the
entire world with males? Stay tuned for next week's exciting adventure.
Although I would have liked a more completely developed plot, this was
still a good story. I suspect that somewhere in cyberspace there are
other episodes of "The Last man on Earth."
I don't want to ruin the ending, but Mrs. Ippy is a closet heterosexual.
Ratings for "The Last Man on Earth"
Athena (technical quality): 10
Venus (plot & character): 9
Celeste (appeal to reviewer): 9
* "Slippery When Wet" by SueNH. This was one of the first stories I
reviewed. It sort of got me started in this business. Here's the
original review. I hope Sue reposts the story so that you can read it.
I was going to read this story late at night and write the review right
away, but after a story like that I have to take a break and visit my
husband. He's going to wake up with one hot mouth around his cock!
This was a truly erotic story. I can't do it justice by trying to
summarize it - It's about a girl and a guy who get into the fitness
center jacuzzi after closing time. Read the story for the details.
The only part that I didn't like at first was when they let the three
college kids join them in the jacuzzi. Actually, I liked that part too;
but except for that part, I'd be ecstatic for a chance to do exactly
what the two of them did. Sue has one of the best disclaimer's of all
the a.s.s. writers: "Reading and writing these stories should be acts of
fantasy, and I hope that you can keep your notions of real and fantasy
life separate in your mind. I know I can." And so can I!
Ratings for "Slippery When Wet"
Athena (technical quality): 10
Venus (plot & character): 10
Celeste (appeal to reviewer): 10
* "At the Pool" by Mark Aster (MyFrThAl@aol.com). Sometimes I
suspect that the plots for some of these stories are not very
realistic. Take this one, for example. Do you think that a guy
in his middle twenties would really go to a swimming pool and
relax with his pregnant girlfriend at his side and lust after a
high school girl with shapely tits and a nice ass and legs that
won't quit who is serving her community as a lifeguard? And if
the couple did go to the pool together and if the guy really did
feel horny whenever he looked at the lifeguard and if he did
express his fantasies about this young lady to his girlfriend, do
you think she would really find it interesting to borrow the
lifeguard's swimsuit and arrange to be alone in the pool with the
guy after closing time? And even if she did do this, do you think
the guy would actually get really turned on by the fantasy of
making it with this cute little lass while he was really driving
his throbbing cock underwater into the pulsating pussy of the lady
who will bear his child? Do you find this as repulsive as I do?
And anyway, how could you get the girl to loan you her swimsuit
and let you into the pool - except, perhaps, by telling her what
you plan to do and telling her that she can watch.
Ratings for "At the Pool
Athena (technical quality): 10
Venus (plot & character): 10
Celeste (appeal to reviewer): 10
* "Brenda's Conquest" by Tom Bombadil (stbush@iglou.com). This is
a story about an older man who falls in love with a 13-year-old
girl with whom he has been familiar since she was nine. In
addition, the girl's 11-year-old sister develops a sexual
relationship with his own 17-year-old sister. There's a lot more
to the story than this, but I am not going to go into the details
here. All I'll say here is that it's a rich, well-developed story
that presents a reasonable perspective on the problems as well as
of the joys of such a relationship.
The author himself refers to this as a "pedophile love story."
Interestingly, my on-line dictionary does not define pedophile or
pedophilia. It goes straight from pedometer to peduncle. Go
figure. However, my on-line encyclopedia does have an article on
the topic, which says this:
"Pedophilia is a psychosexual disorder characterized by a sexual
desire for and sexual acts with prepubescent children. Onset of
the disorder can occur from adolescence through old age, and it
occurs predominantly in males. About two-thirds of pedophiliacs
are attracted to children of the opposite sex. Based on evidence
from criminal court records, pedophiles usually know the children
that they abuse. Most pedophiles resort to deception rather than
force. Although much is known about pedophilia, pedophiles
themselves are difficult to treat and recidivism rates are high."
In the present story, the "pedophile" doesn't actually do what my
encyclopedia says pedophiles do; he simply develops a consensual
relationship with a thirteen-year-old whom he has known for
several years. You will note that although the author himself
describes this as a pedophile love story, I myself have referred
to it as a story of emerging adolescence and romance.
Nonetheless, it is important to realize that this story deals with
a topic that sets of alarms in the minds of people who are
concerned about children being harmed by pornography on the
Internet. As a teacher in an American public school, I am
supposed to call to the attention of the legal authorities
behavior that is typically labeled pedophilia, if I become aware
of it. That's the rules, folks; and I could get into trouble for
not following them. I hasten to add that I am NOT a member of the
Thought Police. I work with a large number of troubled
adolescents, and I HAVE worked with the authorities in cases that
they refer to as pedophilia. In no case that I have witnessed has
the relationship been like that described in this story. Every
case I have ever seen has revealed children who had their lives
screwed up by an exploitive adult.
The notion of falling in love with an innocent and precocious
young person is intuitively appealing. This story idealizes that
intuitive appeal.
It seems reasonable that society can differentiate between
exploitive sex with children (which is vividly described in
Michael K. Smith's "Remembering") and emotionally sensitive
relationships like those described in this story. It is my own
belief that most children are best advised to reach a reasonable
level of maturity before becoming sexually active and that many
adults who become sexually active with children are likely to be
satisfying their own (perhaps unconscious) needs rather than being
helpful to the children. In addition, a very large number of
psychologists seem to agree with my belief, and the laws of most
countries in Western society support my position.
On the other hand, stories like this one are realistic
presentations of emotions and feelings. My hope is that
reasonable people can set aside their biases, read this as the
good story it is, and perhaps let the insights they get from this
story influence their thinking about the issues involved. Many
people will read this story to get some good ideas on how to
seduce little kids or will reject it out of hand because it is
about something that is immoral. Both groups will waste a
perfectly good story.
This story raises a simple question: is it possible to write a
story in which an adult has sexual relations with a young
adolescent in a way that would be approved by reasonable, socially
responsible people? I think this story (along with several
others, including Randu's "Double Trouble" and Santo Romeo's
"Martha Jane") demonstrate that the answer is yes. The related
(and more volatile) question is can this happen in real life? The
answer certainly must be yes, it CAN happen. The crucial question
is DOES it happen? Or are all adults who do this sexual perverts,
as most laws seem to suggest?
As I have said earlier, literally all the young children whom I
have known to have experienced sex with an adult were severely
exploited. It may not always be accurate to call their partners
perverts; "sick" or "dysfunctional" may be better words for some
of them. But - and this is an important BUT - kids who have had
perfectly adaptive - even wonderful - relationships like those
described in this story would have no incentive to come forth and
talk to me about it. In fact, if they did so, the adults whom
they loved would possibly suffer dire consequences. I seriously
doubt that all adult-child sexual relationships are as destructive
as some child advocacy people would have us believe; but I also
think that most real-life adult-child sexual relationships are
exploitive.
I cannot conclude without mentioning one important issue. I think
we need to let kids be kids. In recent years movies and TV shows
(especially the soaps) have combined with peer pressure to urge
kids to rush into adulthood way too fast. An important part of
the mother's logic in this story was that if Brenda didn't have
sexual relations with Richard, she'd be having sex with someone
else real soon. To the extent that her insight is accurate, her
decision to permit sex with Richard may be valid. But might it
not be better to find a way to encourage kids to grow up before
they have sexual relations? As I understand it, something like 25-
40% of kids in the Western world don't have sex until they are at
least 18 years old. Granted, a bunch of these people have major
hang-ups; but statistically they're OK people. If I may use
myself as a case study, I think I really do all right sexually,
even though I had a full childhood before I began my active sex
life; and I THINK the same can be said of my daughters. Sexuality
isn't the only area in which we tend to push kids too fast; I
constantly see parents trying to push preschoolers into academic
programs when they should be playing games or reading Little Red
Riding Hood. Ooops! {For an explanation of this Ooops, see the
review of "The Better To...." later in this issue.} Let's let
kids be kids!
I like stories that raise thought-provoking questions in
interesting contexts. This story does exactly that.
Ratings for "Brenda's Conquest"
Athena (technical quality): 10
Venus (plot & character): 10
Celeste (appeal to reviewer): 10